Hi all, just wanted to know if anyone would _mind_ helping me with my (small) todo list. I know I've been somewhat of an annoyance lately, and for that I sincerely apologize. I'd really like to get the wine uninstaller program up to speed with the patch I have been working on, but it is not going as I had hoped. One person offered to review my patches, but I am admittedly impatient sometimes (I haven't been able to get a response from him since Thursday, and I had hoped for one by Friday night), and all in all, I just dont like having something so small take so long. I am making changes to code I didn't intend to change, which I don't mind doing, but then when I make the change, I get told to do it 3 different ways, and none of the ways I submit gets committed, even after being told that it looks ready to go in. I'd like someone who is really in touch with what Alexandre is looking for to help me. I only have 4 patches, all less than 50 lines each to get this thing in, and I will be done submitting patches for a while, until I learn more about the code (maybe months or even years).. I will take whatever advice is given me (unless it is to not bother with the patch), and really appreciate the help. If you dont mind helping me, please post a note on my bug about the patch http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8364 -- Thanks Tom
Hi Tom! I am afraid you have come accross an unmaintained part of wine. There is maybe nobody who can competently help you. Nobody minds helping you, but nobody can help you. What happens then is that you write a mail and get no answers. You get frustrated(not your fault), write a mail in which you complain nobody has answered. 3 persons who do no know the part of wine you're modifying reply 3 different answers. Discussions start, and then AJ stops applying patches until the discussions have come to a conclusion. Thats just what I think has happened, but I don't know the uninstaller eiter. So count this as a 4th answer to "why does nobody answer me" :-) As for finding out what aj disliked about your patches my experience is that it is best to ask him on irc(#winehackers on freenode). But I also know that aj stops looking at patches if there is way too much dispute about them. In this case you should send single patches to wine-patches starting that you want to start the process over. Of course the patches should have the suggestions implemented that were made before, or if not a good reason why you have chosen to do otherwise(Not all suggestions are good).
On 5/14/07, Stefan Dösinger <stefandoesinger(a)gmx.at> wrote:
Hi Tom! I am afraid you have come accross an unmaintained part of wine. There is maybe nobody who can competently help you. Nobody minds helping you, but nobody can help you.
What happens then is that you write a mail and get no answers. You get frustrated(not your fault), write a mail in which you complain nobody has answered. 3 persons who do no know the part of wine you're modifying reply 3 different answers. Discussions start, and then AJ stops applying patches until the discussions have come to a conclusion.
Ok, thank you very much. That was exactly what I needed to hear.
Thats just what I think has happened, but I don't know the uninstaller eiter. So count this as a 4th answer to "why does nobody answer me" :-)
It wasnt so much a question of why does nobody answer me.. I have been getting responses, it's just that I was not getting anywhere with the responses I was getting. I have all of the information I need I think to be able to finally get this handled now..
As for finding out what aj disliked about your patches my experience is that it is best to ask him on irc(#winehackers on freenode). But I also know that aj stops looking at patches if there is way too much dispute about them. In this case you should send single patches to wine-patches starting that you want to start the process over. Of course the patches should have the suggestions implemented that were made before, or if not a good reason why you have chosen to do otherwise(Not all suggestions are good).
My last question is this: What is an acceptable amount of time I should wait before asking AJ what is wrong with a patch? I see that patches get submitted and then the next day they are committed oftentimes. However I would like I am pressuring him if I submit a patch, it didnt get committed the next day, and then I shortly after ask him what was wrong. So, should I wait until day 2 or so? Unfortunately my company firewall blocks all of the IRC ports, so I can't get onto freenode from work, and by the time I get home, most times #winehackers (well #winehq anyways) is dead. I'll check in winehackers next time.. Thank you very much for putting my fears to rest. Now for the arduous task of starting over heheh. -- Thanks Tom
My last question is this: What is an acceptable amount of time I should wait before asking AJ what is wrong with a patch? I see that patches get submitted and then the next day they are committed oftentimes. However I would like I am pressuring him if I submit a patch, it didnt get committed the next day, and then I shortly after ask him what was wrong. So, should I wait until day 2 or so? Unfortunately my company firewall blocks all of the IRC ports, so I can't get onto freenode from work, and by the time I get home, most times #winehackers (well #winehq anyways) is dead. I'll check in winehackers next time.. You have noticed it correctly. Usually aj commits at 2 pm central european time and 8 pm. Patches that are on wine-patches 6 hours before get in usually, except if there are just too many aj can handle in one go. AJ doesn't commit on weekends. I think if the patch isn't committed withhin 2 commit waves after you sent it its ok to ask. (Ok, I personally get impatient someimtes and ask earlier). As for channels beeing dead, quite often there is no talk if there is nothing to discuss, just ping people if you want to talk to them. Aj is usually around between 10 am central european time and 10-11 pm cet, but I'm not sure in the morning as I'm quite often not in then.
On Mon, 2007-05-14 at 13:56 -0500, Tom Spear wrote: Hey Tom,
My last question is this: What is an acceptable amount of time I should wait before asking AJ what is wrong with a patch? I see that patches get submitted and then the next day they are committed oftentimes. However I would like I am pressuring him if I submit a patch, it didnt get committed the next day, and then I shortly after ask him what was wrong. So, should I wait until day 2 or so? Unfortunately my company firewall blocks all of the IRC ports, so I can't get onto freenode from work, and by the time I get home, most times #winehackers (well #winehq anyways) is dead. I'll check in winehackers next time..
Thank you very much for putting my fears to rest. Now for the arduous task of starting over heheh.
If it's a big patch, it might take AJ 3-4 days to review it; with some of my previous stuff, I waited a week just to be sure. That being said, I second Stefan's advice. I've been where you are with the XEmbed systray stuff, and I know it's tough, but it's doable--don't give up ;-) Personally I think IRC is hands-down the best way to get advice from Alexandre. I would have never gotten the systray stuff done if I had never found him there. Also, it may be a good idea to let this stuff cool down a bit. This may seem like a long time, but give it maybe three months or more before you start messing with this again. What Stefan says about discussing patches is true--it helps if there's not a lot of debate around a patch. If you're still having issues with some technical aspects of the patch, try contacting the author of the original code. It's a bit of a long shot if said developer isn't around anymore, but you might get lucky and he may be able to give some guidance. I, for instance, was able to get some help from the original author of the XEmebed systray patch to help me get it in. I'm really rooting for you. If I can do it, I know you can. Just be patient and you'll pull through. :-) Hope this helps, James Liggett
On Mon, 2007-05-14 at 20:33 -0400, Ivan Gyurdiev wrote:
What Stefan says about discussing patches is true--it helps if there's not a lot of debate around a patch.
This quote should go down in the history of open source :) I hope the word you're looking for is "controversy".
Yeah, "controversy" would work, But, debate and controversy are essentially the same thing, aren't they? :) Put simply, if no one can agree on what the right way is, we're not going to go anywhere, are we? That's why we have a maintainer like Alexandre--to help lay down the law and keep the project on track. To clarify, what I really meant was that maybe Tom should wait a bit until said controversy is resolved before messing with this stuff so he doesn't waste his time.
Can I just chime in here as a newbie Wine developer working on his first patch and say that I find this kind of discussion invaluable? I've lurked on wine-devel for a while and tried to gauge the answers to these questions before, and personally bothered some of the devs with a few questions that are all probably FAQ but weren't mentioned anywhere online. I was wondering if these are the kinds of things that would be useful to find their way onto the Wiki as a guide to new contributors that goes beyond the (already well covered) technical aspects?
Am Dienstag 15 Mai 2007 02:33 schrieb Ivan Gyurdiev:
What Stefan says about discussing patches is true--it helps if there's not a lot of debate around a patch.
This quote should go down in the history of open source :) I hope the word you're looking for is "controversy". Yes, "controvery" better describes what I wanted to say. Hope you can forgive a non-native speaker(german native) picking a slightly inappropiate word :-)
participants (5)
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Chris Howe -
Ivan Gyurdiev -
James Liggett -
Stefan Dösinger -
Tom Spear